Kitchen Garden Forum

Now I have a proper raised bed I'd like to grow shallots. So many varieties..now I'm confused. What is the best, easiest and crop worthy variety, please?
All advice welcome...thank you.

Afternoon Diane

I grew for the first time last year Vigarmor from D T Brown. It grew really well with a lot of foliage, which hid 6 to 8 shallots. They were all uniform of a teardrop shape with a lovely flavour. Also easy to peal so no need to spend 10 minutes fighting with the outer layers. The flavour was not to strong and quite sweet.

Hope this helps.

I grew two varieties of shallots last year: banana shallot "Jermor" which grew ok, tasted fine but deteriorated very quickly in storage and "Yellow Moon" which was also fine and is still as firm as anything now in spite of having been frozen solid in storage during the coldest spell.

So, this year I am growing "Ambition" from seeds (with cultivation advice from Geoff) and "Yellow Moon" again from sets. The former were sown at the beginning of February and are still in the cold greenhouse and the latter are planted in individual pots in the cold greenhouse at the moment.

Just to add: I never pickle shallots, I just use them instead of onions.

I'd add a vote for jeremor, but my favourite is Longor.

I prefer the long shallots and if you can't get hold of Banana shallots, then Longor do well. I love the taste and nearly all of last years crop have lasted through till March 2011. I've now sowed the remaining ones.

Thank you All.

I also like Longor as it is lovely and sweet and not too strong. The other one I've grown for years is Topper, this is a stronger more oniony flavour and keeps much better than any onions.

When you get a variety you like keep some separate to plant the following year and you won't have to buy shallots ever again. I got carried away and ate all the Longor the other year, but I've remembered this year. They've over wintered well and are now planted for this year's crop. I've still got plenty of Topper left which should last almost until this year's onions are ready.

When you're working out how many to plant they usually produce about 7 new shallots from each one. (I think someone has already said this)